Nicole Foy: Is TV making us fat?

If you have school-age kids, you probably know by now that it’s TV Turnoff Week. Teachers have been sending the flyers home, encouraging families to participate.

But no TV during an entire week? Just as American Idol is getting really good?

It’s not easy to ignore the growing body of science pointing to a link between obesity and TV. As my colleague Don Finley wrote four years ago in his series on obesity, Americans have surrendered the bulk of their free time to their televisions. Considering the time spent on the couch, it’s no wonder our waistlines are expanding at dangerous rates.

This is scary: according to media research data, the average child or adolescent watches an average of 3 hours of TV a day — not including video games or DVDs. By the time the average person reaches age 70, he or she will have spent the equivalent of 7 to 10 years watching TV.